LOG: Kyle and Shatterstar - School
Nov. 17th, 2023 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsKyle puts on his teacher hat to bring up the concept of getting some testing for accommodations done after realizing Shatterstar is struggling in school and Shatterstar, eventually, acquiesces. Backdated to November 17
Shatterstar had been mostly left alone for school, which is how he liked it. He and Mr. Gibney (and he was Mr. Gibney during school time because his teacher being Terry's boyfriend was weird) had one conversation about being threatening versus being direct over text to his online classmates back in October, but that was about it as far as "meetings" went. Until today.
Shatterstar crossed his arms and had his hair mostly down so he could hide behind it, trying to figure out what he had done that Mr. Gibney had told him he needed to talk to him about. He had taken what he had said to heart, even if he maintained he hadn't been threatening in the first place.
Kyle was - he felt - actually overdue for this - he should have checked in with Shatterstar in October, but the autumn had gotten away from him. He came into the classroom barefoot, with his laptop tucked under one arm, and a slightly sheepish expression on his face and sat down at a student desk across from where his student was sitting. "First, before you think this is all on you, this is more than half on me, but we need to talk about your actual grades. Good stuff first, the math tutor says you've got this down and are on track. Science guy says mostly the same, he has like one entire concern, which actually might kinda tie into the rest of this."
He popped open the laptop, and flipped the screen to face Shatterstar. "On the other hand, you're struggling in Lit and History. Full struggle bus here. I know we're non traditional but like - we're not that non traditional. You gotta, like, actually turn in assignments."
"I turn in assignments," Shatterstar said defensively, even though he had not turned in many. It was just that they took forever, and the books that Mr. Gibney was having him read were hard to follow. He'd seen other people be able to whip through books, but that had never been him and he didn't think it was that big of a deal.
"I just don't turn them in until I'm done with them and they're good," he said, defending himself and not seeing how at all this was Mr. Gibney's fault, but also not seeing what the problem was at all. He was slow to complete assignments- it wasn't like he was planning on doing anything that had to do with literature or history in the future.
"Yeah, I should've explained that like, you can turn in drafts and get help, and uh." Kyle rubbed the back of his neck. "'Star, has anyone ever tested you for..." Fuck, he hated this conversation. No one that age ever liked hearing "learning disability", he'd hated it too, and had stormed out of Moira's office. And Haller's. And the Professor's. Which had resulted in more than one talk accompanied by tea. "Conditions that might impede learning. I should've asked you in October, but the second best time is now, before we're heading out of the semester.
Shatterstar felt the bones of his arms begin to vibrate in the way they did when his power was building. But Terry had taught him well- he could control this. He wouldn't explode something then pass out on Mr. Gibney. He sweat with the effort of trying not to be angry.
Conditions that might impede learning! Of all the- !
The air hummed.
He could control this. He could control this.
He took a deep breath. "I'm clever," he said defensively. "You know I am. I don't need help with assignments and I don't have problems."
It was an instinctive lie as he forced the vibrations to stop.
Damn, Kyle thought. He might as well just have used the words. Soft-footing it didn't help. "I don't know what your last schools told you, but you can be smart and need help. I did. All the way through grad school. I also had, shit, four? Five? Different accommodations for school. Quiet room for exams, recording lectures because I sure as crap can't take handwritten notes." He gave Shatterstar a wry grin and raised one hand, claws out. "I kill pens. I kill them bad. I dunno what the rest were. Extended deadlines, uh... something else. It was so many. I have ADHD, and I can't be medicated because of my mutation. You're already breezing through math classes I literally could not pass if I wanted to."
"Well, geometry is easy," Shatterstar said with a shrug. "You just have to be able to see the shapes in your head."
He was embarrassed by his outburst and let his hair hang in front of his face to hide how red he was. It was one thing for others to say that needing accommodations didn't make you dumb and another to hear it from someone who had gone to grad school with them.
Still. "I just take a long time to read. And you already accommodate that."
"I do, because I'm not a dick." Kyle said, plainly. "I just think you might be better with some different ... " He paused. "Like taking a different path. You get to the same place, but maybe lets not put sharp rocks in front of you. It takes me forever to do anything more than basic math, so I use a calculator. Lets find some better ways to get your written assignments done. I mean, audio books. Voice to text. If you still need the extra time, then we make that happen too, but lets figure out why you take longer to read. Make your life a little easier."
He resisted the urge to groan, because Kyle was coming from a place of genuinely wanting to help. But figuring out what was wrong with him meant all sorts of testing. "Fine, fine, I'll use audiobooks," he said. He didn't think he had a comprehension problem- he understood movies perfectly well.
"Sick. But." Kyle knew that face way too well, that was the 'if I agree to one thing maybe just maybe the teacher won't press for the other stuff." face. He'd made it himself, trying to avoid ADHD testing, and allergy testing and metabolism testing, and all the other things Moira had made him sit down for, right around the same age. "Lets consider getting you some actual documentation, so you know what's causing you to slow down." He paused. "Look I know how much you like historical weapons, and I wanna use a sword metaphor here, something about slicing through the opponent's armor and the opponent is whatever we throw in your reading list, but I suck at weapons, so can we, like, pretend it worked?"
"You would be wanting to cover the joints in plate armor with chainmail so I would still have protection in my weak spots?" Shatterstar suggested after a moment of thought. "Or is that a simile, smiley, whatever it's called?"
He was still scowling at Kyle though. This wasn't him consenting to the testing, even if the clumsy metaphor made sense. "What if you do the testing but not put it on file?" He bargained. He didn't want more things in his file. Having things on file was generally a bad thing.
"Simile, yep." Kyle agreed. "What if we do the testing, and only put it on file if it means you need accomodations outside me. I'll just setup whatever it shows you need." He paused. "And bully your science and math tutors into doing them too, it won't take much pushing, and if you ever want to do college, or need it for something else, we'll just slide it in there." He tilted his head, questioningly. "Plus, maybe you're right, and the test won't show anything we already don't know. Audiobooks, voice to text, extended deadlines on written papers." He thought for a few seconds. "You know what we could do too, is spoken exams. If you wanna explain the themes in Macbeth or the economic issues that contributed to Germany's World War Two nonsense out loud, I don't care how you show you know it, I just wanna know that you're actually picking up what I'm trying to put down."
This was not the deal that Shatterstar wanted but he had a feeling it was the best he was going to get. Besides, he had no plans for college and it would only be for another semester or two. He wouldn't be graduating "on time" for his age, but if the accommodations got him out of school faster, that meant he could train to be an X-Man faster, which was something that over the last few months of living here he realized he wanted. He still scowled though and purposefully waited a while to respond so that Kyle wouldn't think he was giving in easily. He had some pride.
He could do spoken exams. If he knew what he was going to say, or about the topic, in advance, speaking wasn't difficult. "Written exams for English and History are acceptable. And I will do the testing, but we will hold off on putting it on file for if I need it beyond finishing high school. Deal?"
"Deal. Look, I know I pushed here." Kyle explained. "I don't want you to be miserable, and I know it's a cliche, I just wanna help. If that means like an hour of a test to make sure your brain sees words right, that hour's gonna maybe save you fifteen later." He grinned. "Also, I gotta be real, you tell Terry you're taking a test and it'll suck and what it's for and she's gonna probably bake you a pie." She'd certainly sent Kyle enough baked goods care packages when he was wrapping his Master's thesis. "Or I dunno, some of those potato pancakes."
Shatterstar had to fight the twitch of his lips. He still didn't like that he was being made to do this, even if he knew Mr. Gibney was right about Terry's cooking. "Then we are in agreement. I'll do the test."
Shatterstar had been mostly left alone for school, which is how he liked it. He and Mr. Gibney (and he was Mr. Gibney during school time because his teacher being Terry's boyfriend was weird) had one conversation about being threatening versus being direct over text to his online classmates back in October, but that was about it as far as "meetings" went. Until today.
Shatterstar crossed his arms and had his hair mostly down so he could hide behind it, trying to figure out what he had done that Mr. Gibney had told him he needed to talk to him about. He had taken what he had said to heart, even if he maintained he hadn't been threatening in the first place.
Kyle was - he felt - actually overdue for this - he should have checked in with Shatterstar in October, but the autumn had gotten away from him. He came into the classroom barefoot, with his laptop tucked under one arm, and a slightly sheepish expression on his face and sat down at a student desk across from where his student was sitting. "First, before you think this is all on you, this is more than half on me, but we need to talk about your actual grades. Good stuff first, the math tutor says you've got this down and are on track. Science guy says mostly the same, he has like one entire concern, which actually might kinda tie into the rest of this."
He popped open the laptop, and flipped the screen to face Shatterstar. "On the other hand, you're struggling in Lit and History. Full struggle bus here. I know we're non traditional but like - we're not that non traditional. You gotta, like, actually turn in assignments."
"I turn in assignments," Shatterstar said defensively, even though he had not turned in many. It was just that they took forever, and the books that Mr. Gibney was having him read were hard to follow. He'd seen other people be able to whip through books, but that had never been him and he didn't think it was that big of a deal.
"I just don't turn them in until I'm done with them and they're good," he said, defending himself and not seeing how at all this was Mr. Gibney's fault, but also not seeing what the problem was at all. He was slow to complete assignments- it wasn't like he was planning on doing anything that had to do with literature or history in the future.
"Yeah, I should've explained that like, you can turn in drafts and get help, and uh." Kyle rubbed the back of his neck. "'Star, has anyone ever tested you for..." Fuck, he hated this conversation. No one that age ever liked hearing "learning disability", he'd hated it too, and had stormed out of Moira's office. And Haller's. And the Professor's. Which had resulted in more than one talk accompanied by tea. "Conditions that might impede learning. I should've asked you in October, but the second best time is now, before we're heading out of the semester.
Shatterstar felt the bones of his arms begin to vibrate in the way they did when his power was building. But Terry had taught him well- he could control this. He wouldn't explode something then pass out on Mr. Gibney. He sweat with the effort of trying not to be angry.
Conditions that might impede learning! Of all the- !
The air hummed.
He could control this. He could control this.
He took a deep breath. "I'm clever," he said defensively. "You know I am. I don't need help with assignments and I don't have problems."
It was an instinctive lie as he forced the vibrations to stop.
Damn, Kyle thought. He might as well just have used the words. Soft-footing it didn't help. "I don't know what your last schools told you, but you can be smart and need help. I did. All the way through grad school. I also had, shit, four? Five? Different accommodations for school. Quiet room for exams, recording lectures because I sure as crap can't take handwritten notes." He gave Shatterstar a wry grin and raised one hand, claws out. "I kill pens. I kill them bad. I dunno what the rest were. Extended deadlines, uh... something else. It was so many. I have ADHD, and I can't be medicated because of my mutation. You're already breezing through math classes I literally could not pass if I wanted to."
"Well, geometry is easy," Shatterstar said with a shrug. "You just have to be able to see the shapes in your head."
He was embarrassed by his outburst and let his hair hang in front of his face to hide how red he was. It was one thing for others to say that needing accommodations didn't make you dumb and another to hear it from someone who had gone to grad school with them.
Still. "I just take a long time to read. And you already accommodate that."
"I do, because I'm not a dick." Kyle said, plainly. "I just think you might be better with some different ... " He paused. "Like taking a different path. You get to the same place, but maybe lets not put sharp rocks in front of you. It takes me forever to do anything more than basic math, so I use a calculator. Lets find some better ways to get your written assignments done. I mean, audio books. Voice to text. If you still need the extra time, then we make that happen too, but lets figure out why you take longer to read. Make your life a little easier."
He resisted the urge to groan, because Kyle was coming from a place of genuinely wanting to help. But figuring out what was wrong with him meant all sorts of testing. "Fine, fine, I'll use audiobooks," he said. He didn't think he had a comprehension problem- he understood movies perfectly well.
"Sick. But." Kyle knew that face way too well, that was the 'if I agree to one thing maybe just maybe the teacher won't press for the other stuff." face. He'd made it himself, trying to avoid ADHD testing, and allergy testing and metabolism testing, and all the other things Moira had made him sit down for, right around the same age. "Lets consider getting you some actual documentation, so you know what's causing you to slow down." He paused. "Look I know how much you like historical weapons, and I wanna use a sword metaphor here, something about slicing through the opponent's armor and the opponent is whatever we throw in your reading list, but I suck at weapons, so can we, like, pretend it worked?"
"You would be wanting to cover the joints in plate armor with chainmail so I would still have protection in my weak spots?" Shatterstar suggested after a moment of thought. "Or is that a simile, smiley, whatever it's called?"
He was still scowling at Kyle though. This wasn't him consenting to the testing, even if the clumsy metaphor made sense. "What if you do the testing but not put it on file?" He bargained. He didn't want more things in his file. Having things on file was generally a bad thing.
"Simile, yep." Kyle agreed. "What if we do the testing, and only put it on file if it means you need accomodations outside me. I'll just setup whatever it shows you need." He paused. "And bully your science and math tutors into doing them too, it won't take much pushing, and if you ever want to do college, or need it for something else, we'll just slide it in there." He tilted his head, questioningly. "Plus, maybe you're right, and the test won't show anything we already don't know. Audiobooks, voice to text, extended deadlines on written papers." He thought for a few seconds. "You know what we could do too, is spoken exams. If you wanna explain the themes in Macbeth or the economic issues that contributed to Germany's World War Two nonsense out loud, I don't care how you show you know it, I just wanna know that you're actually picking up what I'm trying to put down."
This was not the deal that Shatterstar wanted but he had a feeling it was the best he was going to get. Besides, he had no plans for college and it would only be for another semester or two. He wouldn't be graduating "on time" for his age, but if the accommodations got him out of school faster, that meant he could train to be an X-Man faster, which was something that over the last few months of living here he realized he wanted. He still scowled though and purposefully waited a while to respond so that Kyle wouldn't think he was giving in easily. He had some pride.
He could do spoken exams. If he knew what he was going to say, or about the topic, in advance, speaking wasn't difficult. "Written exams for English and History are acceptable. And I will do the testing, but we will hold off on putting it on file for if I need it beyond finishing high school. Deal?"
"Deal. Look, I know I pushed here." Kyle explained. "I don't want you to be miserable, and I know it's a cliche, I just wanna help. If that means like an hour of a test to make sure your brain sees words right, that hour's gonna maybe save you fifteen later." He grinned. "Also, I gotta be real, you tell Terry you're taking a test and it'll suck and what it's for and she's gonna probably bake you a pie." She'd certainly sent Kyle enough baked goods care packages when he was wrapping his Master's thesis. "Or I dunno, some of those potato pancakes."
Shatterstar had to fight the twitch of his lips. He still didn't like that he was being made to do this, even if he knew Mr. Gibney was right about Terry's cooking. "Then we are in agreement. I'll do the test."
